As the NME reported, midway through his performance, the famed vegetarian told the crowd, “I can smell burning flesh and I hope to God it’s human.”

A few minutes later, Moz briefly walked offstage toward the end of his take on The Smiths’ “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” (see video below). Upon his return, he reportedly said, “The smell of burning animals is making me sick. I just couldn’t bear it.”

So could that explain why he canceled tonight’s show at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, Calif. — what would have been the final night of his illness-plagued U.S. tour? Or could it be a recurrence of the health problems that forced Moz to cancel five of the first seven dates of the trek in late February and early March?

As with the earlier cancellations, nobody’s saying much. The venue’s site says the show is canceled “due to illness,” but there’s no update on Morrissey’s own Web site.

Needless to say, fans aren’t pleased, particularly those who made efforts to travel to the singer’s only non-Coachella date in California on the current tour. One even suggested, on the Morrissey-solo.com fan site, that the cancellation wasn’t due to illness, but, rather, anemic ticket sales.

Of course, cancellations go hand-in-hand with being a Moz fan. As another wisely pointed out, “You’ve been a fan for 20 years and didn’t know that he cancels shows more often than he has sex?”

1 Comment

This, coupled with the earlier cancellations, is simply unprofessional. I will never again travel to see Morrissey or rely upon his tour schedule in making arrangements for travel, hotels, or such things.